Benefits of Learning a New Language

Humans have the most sophisticated ability to communicate over all other species by tenfold. Much of our brainpower is devoted to processing language and complex thought.

Can you imagine how using more than one language would significantly increase your mind power?

When you learn a new language, you are learning more than just new words. Within that language brings a new culture with fresh and mind stimulating ways of reinvented expression.

Learning a language will help you to jump outside of the tracks of your accustomed standard of communication and lay new passages that articulate meaning from a different perspective. When you use language that treats subjects, verbs, tenses, and other elements of a language in a different and alien style, you are exercising the elusive area of the brain that processes language.

This area is so elusive because we have yet to fully understand how we learn language. We understand that at the tender age of two our mind is set up to massively learn language more than any other time of our life. This area begins to significantly decrease in such activity after the age of six. Yet for our entire adult life, even well through our senior years, our brains impressively retain the ability to learn additional languages. Though we understand enough to somewhat effectively teach language in a classroom setting, and by other measured techniques, we still have not begun to unravel the mechanics of how we acquire it.

Scientists are discovering that the bilingual brain has an altered language network that is comparatively different from people who only speak one language.

People who speak more than one language are quicker and more accurate to decipher the meaning in words and phrases. They are also better listeners because they can pick out the different sounds and syllables in words with more ease.

Even more interesting, when someone speaks in one language, their brains are still silently using the other language simultaneously. This dual activity is what enables translators to fluidly go back and forth between multiple languages with ease.

When you speak two languages, your brain is juggling the other language at the same time.

Scientists speculate that this extra ‘work out’ constantly requires the brain to multi-task, which in turn makes it more resilient and nimble. The consistent activity helps the brain to ward off senility, stay sharp, and be more focused.

It has also been found that the more languages we learn the more our memory skills increase, while the number of instances of cognitive blunders decreases.

Fluently speaking more than one language is also highly beneficial for our social and professional life.

Learning a new language expands our world and increases the amount of resources that are available to us. We can establish friendships and partake in adventures that we otherwise would never have experienced. As spouses we can become closer to family members who have a different first language.

We can feel more at ease and understand what is happening around us when we travel to foreign countries. People will open up to you because they appreciate and respect your interest in learning their foreign tongue.

In some areas of the country, learning two languages is swiftly becoming a means of survival. In industries such as customer service, representatives that speak two or more languages are far more in demand than representatives that only speak one.

Companies are becoming more globalized and employees that speak more than one language are valued more, are more likely to be retained and even compensated higher. Some companies will even go so far as to relocate their operations to regions where there is a greater bilingual population. Some other companies are even known to pay for and provide foreign language training for their employees.

If you are interested in learning a new language you will benefit greatly by learning from various styles and techniques. Some language learning courses are helpful in teaching both the basics and more advanced language courses. A translation dictionary, verb conjunction guide, and study book that teaches the fundamental principles of your chosen language are also essential. These steps are very helpful in providing a starting point in your journey.

However, once the basics are under your belt, you will need to find a way to practice with actual people. This is where the real learning begins that cannot be duplicated in any language program or classroom currently in existence.